


Obsolete

by ZombieJesus



Series: Death Note Kink Meme Fics [2]
Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst and Feels, M/M, Other, Sci-Fi Elements, Shinigami Realm, heartwreck, post-apocalyptic world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2020-10-10 01:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20519738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZombieJesus/pseuds/ZombieJesus
Summary: Light lives all his life in the span of a day, but Ryuk will live that day over an eternity.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [exAm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exAm/gifts), [reaperlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reaperlight/gifts).

“Ryuk...” Justin Armonia didn’t have time for this. Well, that wasn’t true, all any of the shinigami had was time, in theory. So to put it more accurately, he didn’t want to be doing this. He was the second highest-ranking shinigami other than the King himself. Justin repeated himself when Ryuk didn’t look at him, when he kept staring into the vast cave from his perch. “Ryuk!” His voice echoed and returned, louder but hollow.

“Eh?” Ryuk barely twitched at the boom, motionless as the shed carapace of a beetle still clinging to bark. His voice sounded just as dead and empty. “Whattaya want....”

Justin stepped closer and the light from his jewels cast prismatic rainbows across an enormous pile of junk in the shadows. No, not just one pile, seemingly endless piles rising to meet stalagmites in the darkness. He looked closer, metallic joints creaking as he picked up a grey plastic square. “What’s all this?” All the piles consisted of exactly the same plastic squares, heaped around an outdated television set dating to several hundred years ago. Justin could see there had once been words on the square and colorful pictures but it had faded to be illegible.

“Nothin.”

“Nothing?!” There was a slight tremor in Justin’s voice betraying worry. Ryuk had been seen hoarding things for a good long time, as well as becoming an absolute recluse, but nobody cared until the King wondered aloud if Ryuk had gone mad. 

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Ryuk waved his clawed hand, pointing to the entrance of the cave. “Go back to the castle and have a smoke or somethin.” His hand dropped back down to his side to dangle there. “Leave me alone.”

Justin wouldn’t play nursemaid but the lower shinigami were purportedly his responsibility, and they’d lost so many since Earth’s population had recently shrunk to a handful of mortals. There had been some kind of disaster, a burst of technological energy a century back that had shocked them all. The remaining humans had short life spans, some effect of the disaster. In the immediate aftermath there had been a mad scramble by the laziest shinigami, those who hadn’t banked much life years, to try and write a lot of names. The King had restricted that greatly given the already small numbers of humans, eventually banned it until the humans could reproduce and repopulate Earth.

Now there were only 5 shinigami left, including Ryuk. The rest hadn’t survived austerity. This was quite curious to Justin since Ryuk told the King he lost his own notebook many years ago, and still the shinigami had not died. It was assumed he had banked many years during the feast times, enough to survive the famine.

“I came to tell you that the King has given you permission to write again.” Justin tossed the plastic square back onto the heap, drawing a hiss from Ryuk when it made a mighty clatter.

“Careful!!!” Ryuk snarled at him and flapped down to the pile, carefully arranging the plastic bits back to how they were. “Told ya I lost my Note.”

“The King has many extras since...well, due to recent decreases in the Realm’s population. Simply ask for another.” Justin looked around, turning his jeweltoned light on a human twin-sized bed, dresser, and desk in the corner. 

“Don’t want another.” Ryuk grumbled, flapping back up to his rock perch. “Just waiting things out.”

Justin stared, not quite comprehending. “You only have a few days left. The King said—“

“The King can go fuck himself.” Ryuk’s feathers bristled out, eyes glowing in the darkness as he hissed, “I’m done with this place, got it? Finished.” He wondered if he’d see Rem and Gelus and Kindarrah and all the rest of his kin wherever he was headed. He hoped not.

Justin started to wonder if Ryuk really had lost it now. He raised his voice, “We can’t afford to lose any more of our number! What will it take to make you write again? You know all the apples on Earth were decimated or I’d—“

“Don’t want apples.” Ryuk couldn’t even remember their taste. He could only remember one thing. One person. A few short years had replayed like a movie in Ryuk’s head, again and again, and he never tired of it, never bored him. 

“What do you want then? Just say it and the King may grant your wish.” Justin could hardly believe he was trying so hard but it would be his golden neck if Ryuk died and they were only four.

“Heh.” Ryuk pointed to the walls of the cave, and across every inch was scrawled ‘ 夜神月 .’ The last name he’d written, the last name he’d write. 

“That human from 300 years ago?! Is that why you’ve been in here moping all this time?” Justin croaked a laugh, which only got more grotesque as it echoed in the cave. 

That was suddenly cut short when Justin was bodily slammed against the rock wall, his vision filled with menacing white teeth as Ryuk’s nastiest voice replied. “Maybe I’ll spend my last days picking out each of your jewels, or letting my crows do it for me?” Ryuk whistled low and a hundred glittering eyes opened in the high places of the cave, soft cawing and tittering filling the space. “You don’t like crows, do you?”

“W-wait!” Justin knew that Ryuk couldn’t likely hurt him, but the prospect of losing his prized possessions put him in a more charitable state of mind. “I can...I can bring your human back to you! I know how!” He wheezed, “But you won’t like it.”

Ryuk dropped Justin, stepping back as the golden shinigami clanged into a heap. “How?” He had Ryuk’s full attention.

Justin tried to act dignified as he slowly stood up and dusted himself off. “I’ll need something with his unique genetic signature. Some hair, a bone, a tooth.” 

Ryuk moaned because Light’s body had been cremated and scattered into the ocean long ago, a preventative measure from having a martyr’s tomb for Kira’s worshippers to rally behind. The Yagami family had moved shortly after, and all Light’s possessions were long lost. “Noooo...” But then, there was something, something he’d almost burned too but hadn’t. “Hold on!” 

Ryuk zoomed around the cave, careful not to disturb his piles when he finally found it at the very back, stuffed under a rock. He flew back to Justin, holding out a pair of his old leather pants. “These...they have his...blood.” He grimaced then looked pleadingly to Justin. “This good enough?”

Justin took the decrepit pants, noting the rust-colored stains streaming down them as if someone had grabbed at Ryuk’s legs. “Yes.” He sighed, “But there is a catch. This will not be the real Light Yagami, but a copy, an echo of him. He will have some of the real Light’s memories but not all, and he may not even remember you. To him, it will be like waking up from a long dream, and when he goes back to sleep after a single day, he will be gone forever and we can never perform this magic again.”

“Just one day?” Ryuk’s chest heaved, his voice choking in his throat. He stood up straighter. “I don’t care, that’s enough.” There were so many things he needed to tell Light, apologize for. The guilt had weighed so heavy, Ryuk needed to relieve his conscience or he surely would wither away. In response to the dubious look on Justin’s face, he said with resolve, “I’m sure. And in return, I’ll write again.”

Justin nodded and walked to the human bed, laying the pants on it. He scraped a nail into the dried blood and rubbed it across a diamond in his wrist, a jewel of crystallized scientific knowledge. He leaned down and breathed warm air over the bed and all the prismatic light from his body coalesced to fill the cave with blinding illumination that, once dimmed, revealed the form of a sleeping human male wearing Ryuk’s pants.

Ryuk clamped a clawed hand over his mouth, afraid he’d scream and wake Light. The human looked so beautiful and peaceful, none of the worries of Kira creasing his brow, and exactly how Ryuk remembered him on the last day of his life. He whispered so soft, so soft, to Justin, “Go,” and then hesitantly knelt beside the bed just to watch Light. It had been a very long time since Ryuk smiled, but he was now, couldn’t help it even if it might be terrifying for Light to wake up to. 

“Light.” Ryuk carefully stroked his claws in Light’s soft hair, tracing a finger over the human’s cheek. “Light-o, wake up.” No shinigami’s voice had ever been so tender.

Light’s eyelashes fluttered and gradually opened, focusing on Ryuk’s face. He smiled sleepily, “Ryuk...”

Ryuk nearly cried out that Light remembered him, but didn’t want to scare the human. “Yes it’s me. Oh Light, I’ve missed you so much.” 

Light gave him an amused look, one so familiar to Ryuk. “Missed me? Did you go somewhere?” He sat up on the bed and stretched his arms, yawning as he finally noticed he was somewhere strange. In a hush, “Ryuk...where are we?” 

“We’re in my world, Light. The shinigami realm.” Ryuk hoped that wasn’t too scary for the human to hear. It might confuse or upset him, and Ryuk didn’t want to ruin the only day that would ever matter again.

“Your world? Wait, does that mean that...well, did we lose or did we win?” 

Ryuk wasn’t a natural liar. He was forgetful and conveniently omitted things, but he’d never lied to Light. Until now. “We won.” He let his real happiness shine through on his face now, even if it wasn’t for the reason Light thought. “You won.”

Light sucked in a deep breath, elation and triumph filling his being. “So you...” He scooted forward to the end of the bed, getting very close to the shinigami. “...you saved me after all?!”

Ryuk’s heart was shattering now at that question but he nodded. A little choked, “Yes Light. You have to stay here for a full day before you can go home.”

Light didn’t question anything, instead he was staring at the shinigami with new eyes. “You did that for me?” The real Light would have known that saving a human from death would have killed Ryuk, but he didn’t have all of his memories. His gaze was soft as he reached out and caressed Ryuk’s wing, gently pushing his fingers through satin feathers and stroking.

Ryuk melted into the touch, wings drooping heavy as he couldn’t wait another moment to say it. “I love you Light. I’m so sorry.” 

“Sorry?” Light laughed musically, brushing his fingertips across the shinigami’s cheek. “What are you sorry for? I'm happier than I’ve ever been.” He hesitated just a moment and then tugged at Ryuk’s wing, guiding him onto the bed to lay down beside him. Quietly, “And how could I not love you in return, for delivering me from death, handing me my New World?” 

Ryuk trembled as Light pulled closer, those liquid amber eyes just as expressive as the real thing, just as bright and beautiful and unique. “I...I got you presents.” He shuddered as Light was threading fingers in his feathers again, tugging at them gently, insistently. “Piles and piles of them. Your...your favorite game.” He embraced Light in return, fumbling and scared to scratch him.

Light grinned, “Mario Golf? Here in your world? You’re joking.” He pressed a kiss to Ryuk’s jaw, humming when the shinigami whined. 

“No! I got it. I got all of them.” Ryuk had scoured every landfill for three centuries to find them all, neatly stacked in pretty piles around the cave. His voice faded softer as Light kissed him again, “We can play it again, just like we used to Light-o....your favorite...you were always my favorite.” 

Light wiggled out of the leather pants he didn’t remember owning, pressing closer to his savior, his dark angel. “That can wait...can’t it?”

Ryuk kissed Light so he wouldn’t have to answer the question, so Light wouldn’t see the inky tears in his eyes. He didn’t stop the human when Light climbed on top of him as Ryuk had dreamed of in 300 years of fantasies. He listened to every soft word gasped into the darkness and filed them away for an eternity compressed into a day. He would have let Light win all the games he knew they had no electricity to play, and only the crows would have known the lie.


	2. Chapter 2

The first of three orange suns had just touched the horizon of the land of the shinigami when Justin Armonia appeared at the mouth of Ryuk's cave. The crows softly cawed and rustled their feathers, announcing his arrival before he could speak to Ryuk, who was sitting cross-legged by the small bed. 

Ryuk lifted his yellow eyes, whispering, "Shhh, he's dozin.'"

Justin floated forward to get a better look, but Light was not dead yet, he could see the slow rise and fall of the human's chest and the flush of life was still pink in his cheeks. "It won't be long now. The magic only lasts until third sun sets." 

"Ain't fair." Ryuk deflated and turned his eyes back to Light, carefully stroking the human's silky hair, not caring if he looked silly or besotted. "He wound down...like them toys on Earth that run outta batteries." 

Justin creaked a laugh, "You truly are smitten with that dying world, aren't you? There haven't been things like that on Earth for over two hundred years."

"Yeah...but there used to be." Ryuk fondly remembered the little TV that Light hid in his bag of chips when he'd been tricking that detective L, how just popping in some batteries had made the thing work. He wished it was that easy now. 

"Well, did you enjoy your toy?" 

Ryuk nodded, a grotesque grin spreading across his face. Despite the gnawing sadness, it had still been a beautiful day, even when Light had started to fade. Ryuk had flown him around the Shinigami Realm since he'd been unable to get any power to the TV or the old game console. They'd sat on top of leviathan bones, holding hands and talking, reminiscing about things that felt to Light as though had just happened. The memories were fresh in Ryuk's mind too. They always would be. He pressed a kiss to Light's cheek, and the human smiled faintly, his eyes fluttering open.

Light blinked sleepily, looking only at Ryuk. "I feel so tired. Did we do that much today?" He tried to get up but couldn't find the strength to do more than touch Ryuk's clawed hand.

Ryuk swallowed, trying not to blubber and frighten Light. "Just rest, Lighto. Don't strain yerself." He desperately wanted to say his goodbyes but that would ruin everything.

"You're coming with me, right, Ryuk?" Light's voice became a whisper, "When I go...back to Earth?" Before the shinigami could answer, Light's eyes had closed again and he was asleep, but his breathing was more shallow.

Ryuk laid his head down next to Light's hand, big black tears rolling down his ugly face. He wanted to scream, fight, claw at something until it relented and he could have his heart's desire. But he was a shinigami, he was Death and no use at all when it was life he needed. 

"You need to get your head back in the present, Ryuk. This is all..." Justin gestured to the prone, sleeping human, "very un-shinigami-like behavior. There may be consequences." Justin pulled a new Death Note from inside a metal compartment, holding it out to Ryuk. 

Ryuk reluctantly snatched the Death Note and dropped it into his holster. "Don't care."

Justin bristled, clenching his golden jaw with a clang. "We saw you having sex. You know this is forbidden. You'll be punished." He lied out of irritation, because all punishments had been suspended. There were too few of them left now to chance killing one. 

"Eh, so do it already. Think I care? The last part of me worth a damn died 300 years ago." The echo of that was slipping away before his eyes. Nothing would ever matter again. 

"There are always other humans." 

"Not like him. I looked, remember?" Ryuk had tried again and again to go back down to Earth and find another Light Yagami. It had been fun in a base way at first, and sure, he got some apples and a few laughs. But each time was never the same as _Light_ and left him feeling more and more hollow, until he couldn't feel anything at all anymore. No apple tasted like the ones Light fed him. No amusing mind game would ever originate from _that_ brilliant mind again. 

Justin sneered disdainfully, "Well, look at him now. The hubris to think he could ever be a god."

Ryuk jerked his head up from the bed, baring his teeth as he growled, "He was a better shinigami than I was. Better 'n any of you, too!" 

Justin's patience was exhausted, and he said coldly, "Well, you managed to kill him twice. Maybe you're not such a bad shinigami after all."

Ryuk's scream reverberated in the cave, dust raining down on them from above. The crows shrieked and cawed in response, leaving their perches to circle and flap above the shinigami's heads. But Light still slept, nothing would wake him now. "DON'T YOU DARE!" He rose to his full terrifying height, wings spread and eyes glowing in the dim cave as he advanced on Justin.

"W-wait..." Justin took a step back, cursing himself for poking Ryuk's sore spot. "I only meant--"

"GET HIM!" Ryuk pointed a long talon at Justin and all the crows cawed in delight, descending on the horrified metal skeleton in a flurry of claws and wings. Their clever beaks wrenched into the sockets on his body, popping his jewels out in a sparkling rain while Ryuk cackled and cheered them on. "Go Fuji! Pink Lady! Bwahaha! Nice one, Juicy!"

"GAhhhhhHHHH!!! Stop STOP!" Justin flailed and tried to knock the birds away, but they were supernaturally agile, far more tenacious than their mortal counterparts. 

"Ahahah!" Ryuk slapped his knee, laughing so hard he was crying for a different reason. "Yer goin' bald, Goldie!"

Diamonds and rubies rolled away across the rocky floor and still the crows didn't let up, flapping madly and pecking, plucking. Justin wailed, "Ry-RYUK CALL THEM OFF! PLEASE!"

Ryuk snorted at the beg, but stuck two fingers in his maw and whistled. The crows stopped immediately and flapped to perch on Ryuk's shoulders and wings, some still holding their prizes in their beaks. He held out his hand and a grumpy crow, Mario, dropped a large emerald into his hand. It was the jewel Justin had used to bring Light back.

Justin was shaking in fear and anger as he pulled his hands down from where he'd been covering his diamond eyes. They were the only two jewels left on his body. 

"Put the rest of them jewels somewhere safe fellas." The crows started to take the gems somewhere at the top of the cave, swooping down to pick up the ones scattered on the floor and fly away with them. 

"What have you done..." Justin gaped as all his lovely possessions disappeared, spirited away by those feathered demons. "Thief! The Shinigami King will hear of this!"

Ryuk grinned, "Pfft, then go and tattle, you cantankerous fool. Show up lookin' like that and see where it gets ya." He knew for a fact that Justin would be the laughingstock of the Shinigami court, probably thrown out of the castle in disgrace. He'd always thought the Answer God was far too prideful and needed to be taken notch or two, and Ryuk wasn't alone in that opinion. "Think they might make nice decorations for my cave, heh. Or mebbe I just might give 'em back to ya."

Justin huffed, "What do you want?"

"Tell me how the save him." Ryuk cast a longing look at the bed, his grin disappearing with how pale Light looked now. The third sun was nearly at the horizon. 

"I told you! There's no way!" Even as Justin said it, his mind was grasping at straws, trying to think of some solution. But even he, the Answer God didn't know. The crows tittered ominously and he shuddered, covering his head again in case they tried to make another drive.

"Light would know what to do..." Ryuk forlornly looked between the emerald in his hand and the new Death Note slotted in his holster, and something stuck. "I can...maybe I can use the Death Note. The jewel needs life, right? That's how you made it work?"

"But that body will die, no matter what you do. Something mortal, _living_ cannot exist in this world! That's why he didn't have all his memories, why the replica is imperfect. This realm steals life from the first moment it is created here." Justin relaxed slightly, peering out from behind his arms as an idea occurred. "But...his consciousness, the essence of his soul...it's still in that emerald."

Ryuk hung on Justin's words, strung along by a slender thread of hope. "Lighto's mind is in...here?" He held up the faceted jewel, which seemed to glow from within. "You stole it from Mu?"

"It is forbidden magic, but...the time for quibbling about such things is past. Our prey is few in number and we are far fewer. I thought it would bring you back to us." It was finally sinking in for Justin that nothing would bring Ryuk back to them, not without a more permanent compromise. Every shinigami needed something-- while he thrived on knowledge, some just wanted gambling, some wanted to watch the dramas of mortals or experience human food. And Ryuk wanted Light Yagami. 

Light made a soft noise from the bed, his chest falling as he exhaled his last breath. The third sun had set, and darkness filled the cave once more.

Ryuk dashed to his side with an anguished sob and took Light's hand, but the human's body crumbled to dust in his talons. "No...." He grasped at the dust, whimpering pitifully. It hadn't been enough, not nearly enough. "Light...I wasn't ready..."

Justin sighed and floated over to the old TV, considering this primitive technology. "Give me the emerald."

"No! It's all I have left of him!"

"Trust me Ryuk, just give it to me." Justin extended out a metal hand. "I believe you can see him, although you'll never touch him again."

"Really?" Ryuk wiped his eyes and carefully placed the emerald in Justin's hand. "If this is a trick, I'm boilin' ya down for scrap."

Justin chuckled, "Not a trick. Watch." He placed a hand on the TV and it flickered on to show staticy snow. The emerald floated from his hand and sank into the screen, and an image gradually appeared. It was Light, blinking as he woke up in an opulent canopy bed.

"Light!" Ryuk phased to the TV, placing a black hand on the screen. He watched greedily as Light smiled and stretched, then called out for him. "Lighto! I'm right here! Right here buddy!"

"He can't hear you." Justin backed away from the TV, but whatever magical energy had embued it with power persisted. "In his mind, he's just returned to Earth, to his perfect world where Kira has won. It's an illusion of course, but he will experience everything as if it were real."

"Oh..." Ryuk looked up at Justin gratefully, and although it was bittersweet to never be able to touch or speak with Light again, Light had his dream. A mini-universe just for him, playing out his perfect world. "And...he'll never know? That it's not real?"

"He will never know. There will still be challenges for him, if you wish. I give you leave to write his story, so long as _you_ get back to writing names in your Death Note." 

Ryuk smiled at the TV, thinking he'd never want to leave this spot ever again. It would be like following Light again! Maybe he could give Light his family back, that infuriating detective back. When Light played Mario Golf, he could watch and cheer him on! He remembered what Light loved, what thrilled him, what he'd been working for. Kira wasn't able to create an ideal world, but that didn't matter. Ryuk would do it for him, just for Light. "I'll write." Ryuk's hand went to his Death Note and then he whistled for the crows again. "Give 'em back his shinies." The crows cawed in disappointment but obeyed, leaving them in a pile at the golden god's feet.

"It's the best I can do, and far more than you deserve." Justin rolled his diamond eyes and began to slot his gems back into their sockets, wiping crow spit and cave dust from them first. 

"It's enough." Ryuk snickered as Light admired himself in the mirror and then wandered around the bedroom, finding a Death Note on top of a dresser. The triumphant look on Light's face made him glow with happiness inside. "How do I...well, how do I make things fun for him in there?"

"Write some names, first, _then _I'll tell you how." Justin didn't want to say that it was as easy as making a wish, now that he'd transferred the magical resonance of the emerald to Ryuk. "And keep your pets in check!" He glared up at the shining eyes of the crows dotting the cave ledges. 

"Pfft, fine." Ryuk stood up and dragged his eyes from the TV. "Guess I'll have to go find a portal or somethin.' Been a while. Don't even remember where they are, hyuk."

"You've even forgotten that?" Justin sighed, but it came out like a clang. "Must I teach you how to be a shinigami again altogether?" He motioned to Ryuk and flapped out of the cave.

Ryuk zoomed along behind him. "Heh, I wasn't the best shinigami even in my heyday. Like I said...Lighto was better than I ever was."

"Maybe HE can give you an education then." Justin alighted next to a portal and opened it with a sweep of his hand. "There you are, now get to work."

Ryuk peered into the swirling abyss, immediately noticing that the world had indeed changed into a barren wasteland not too different from their world. Was it because of his mistakes? Would the world still have come to such a disaster if Kira had lived? He mused quietly, "It's too bad..."

"Yes, there's no apples anymore."

Ryuk snorted at the misunderstanding, taking out his Death Note and cracking it open. "Yeah, no apples." He wrote a few names, feeling the years flow into him as they had since the dawn of time. There was no joy in it anymore. His joy was waiting for him back in his cave, a tabula rasa world he'd build while this one withered. "A real shame." 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the dn_kink meme

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Paradox Man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22051282) by [reaperlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reaperlight/pseuds/reaperlight)


End file.
